Jane Eyre

Jane Eyre


Charlotte Bronte published Jane Eyre on October 16, 1847 under the pseudonym, Currer Bell. The American edition appeared a year later. The novel follows the classic Bildungsroman genre; structured as a coming-of-age story where Jane Eyre progresses from a young orphan into a woman; the reader follows the heroine's character development, emotional travails, and moral development.

Jane Eyre's setting is an unspecified location in northern England, presented as five distinct stages: 1) Jane's childhood where, as an orphan at Gateshead Hall she is tormented by her cousin John; 2) She is then sent away to a charity school, Lowood School; 3) Her governorship at Thornfield Hall where she falls in love with Edward Rochester; 4) Her time with the Rivers family where she receives her first marriage proposal; and finally; 5) Her reunion and marriage to her beloved, Rochester.

"I am no bird; and no net ensnares me: I am a free human being with an independent will.”

Charlotte Bronte dedicated the novel to William Makepeace Thackeray. It remains on many high school reading lists, and is featured in our Feminist Literature Study Guide.


Table of Contents

Chapter I

Chapter II

Chapter III

Chapter IV

Chapter V

Chapter VI

Chapter VII

Chapter VIII

Chapter IX

Chapter X

Chapter XI

Chapter XII

Chapter XIII

Chapter XIV

Chapter XV

Chapter XVI

Chapter XVII

Chapter XVIII

Chapter XIX

Chapter XX

Chapter XXI

Chapter XXII

Chapter XXIII

Chapter XXIV

Chapter XXV

Chapter XXVI

Chapter XXVII

Chapter XXVIII

Chapter XXIX

Chapter XXX

Chapter XXXI

Chapter XXXII

Chapter XXXIII

Chapter XXXIV

Chapter XXXV

Chapter XXXVI

Chapter XXXVII

Chapter XXXVIII--Conclusion

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